Tag Archives: Van Irions

A court case to determine the eligibility of Barack Obama to appear on the Georgia presidential ballot began this morning in the Atlanta, Georgia court room of Judge Michael Malihi. The case has been filed questioning the “natural born citizen” status of Obama according to the United States Constitution; Article II, Section 2, Paragraph 5 which states “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;…”. The rest of the qualification clause covers age and residency requirements. This clause is backed up by a Supreme Court ruling in 1875, Minor vs. Happerset (88 U S 162) that defined the term “natural born citizen”. The suit seeks to prevent Obama from appearing on the ballot until he is proven to be qualified. Obama’s father was reported to be Kenyan, and a British citizen at the time of Obama’s birth.

The White House released a long form birth certificate on April 27, 2011 that has been called a forgery by forensic expert Doug Vogt. Another expert, Jean-Claude Tremblay, told FOX News that the problem is with the “off the counter” software used to scan the document, not the document itself.

Also in question is Obama’s social security number. The number he is using reportedly comes from Connecticut, a state in which Obama has never resided. Susan Daniels, a licensed private investigator, researched the Obama social security number and filed affidavits as to her findings. The first of two affidavits can be found at this link. The second affidavit is also linked in the story from The Post & Email online publication.

There are also questions about Obama’s Fulbright Scholarship attained to attend college at Occidental College. Fulbright Scholarships are restricted to foreign students and Obama has yet to explain how he attained the scholarship if he was a citizen of the United States at the time. There are also question about Obama’s foreign travels. He reportedly travelled to Pakistan in 1981, a time when that nation was off limits to persons with U S passports.

Obama attorney, Michael Jablonski, sent a letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp stating that Obama was “suspending” his participation in the proceedings despite a subpoena to appear before Judge Malihi in the case. Obama is currently on a campaign swing through several Western states. In the letter of response to Jablonski, Secretary Kemp stated in part:

As you are aware, OSAH Rule 616-1-2-.17 cited in your letter only applies to parties to a hearing. As the referring agency, the Secretary of State’s Office is not a party to the candidate challenge hearings scheduled for tomorrow. To the extent a request to withdraw the case referral is procedurally available, I do not believe such a request would be judicious given the hearing is set for tomorrow morning.

Van Irion of Liberty Legal Foundation is currently representing plaintiffs Mark Hatfield and Carl Swensson before Judge Malihi. Hatfield and Swensson have asked that their case be heard separately from a suit filed by Orly Taitz. Taitz was originally set to represent Republican presidential candidate John Dummett in this matter, but problems arose and Dummett opted to use Irion and Liberty Legal Foundation to handle his legal challenges.

Dummett was the first to approach the eligibility issue from the standpoint of suing the Democrat National Committee and its chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, as well as Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid. They are the ones who have to certify that Obama has met all requirements to be their party’s candidate. Pelosi signed documents in 2008 stating that Obama did meet all Constitutional requirements but those documents have now come into question as to their accuracy.

Several more lawsuits have been filed by candidate Dummett, with Van Irion and Liberty Legal Foundation as legal counsel in them also. Mr. Dummett has been given legal standing as a presidential candidate by the Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco. Dummett has a preliminary hearing on his suit in Tennessee on February 24, 2012 and has another suit pending in Arizona. Irion and Liberty Legal will soon file similar suits on behalf of Dummett in Alabama, California, and Montana with more to come in the near future.

As the hearing, scheduled to begin at 9:00 a. m. Eastern time, was about to begin attorneys were called into the judge’s chamber for a conference, delaying the start of the hearing several minutes. The lawyers returned to the court room at 9 25 and the hearing finally got underway at 9:30 a.m.

Lead counsel Van Irion read a portion of the letter from Kemp to Jablonski, pertaining to the denial of Obama’s attendance, into the court record. He then called David Weldon, a registered voter of Georgia who testified as to the validity of a birth certificate for Barack Obama Sr. he received through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He read from section 11 of the document that stated Barack Obama Sr. was born in Kenya, East Africa. He also quoted 2 passages from Obama’s book “Dreams From My Father” that stated Obama Sr. was not allowed to leave Kenya in the 1966-’67 time frame due to passport issues.

Counsel presented the Constitutional issue of eligibility from Article II Section 2, Paragraph 5 and went through the Minor vs. Happersett Supreme Court decision outlining the wording in question in this matter.

Plaintiff Carl Swensson was then called and identified a copy of President Obama’s schedule received from the White House that showed no official business scheduled for the time of this hearing that would prevent him from attending. He then testified as to documents relating to his challenge filing and documents received from Secretary of State Kemp acknowledging receipt and acceptance of said documents.

Plaintiff Kevin Powell then testified as to the validity of documents he received as part of his challenge. He introduced the divorce papers of Barack Obama Sr. and Stanley Ann. He also introduced certified copies of the certificate of nomination from the Democrat and Republican National Committees showing discrepancies in the working. The Republican form stated their candidate met all “Constitutional qualifications” while the Democrat form stated Obama was “duly nominated” as their presidential candidate.
Devin Allen was then called and testified that according to FOIA documents Barack Obama Sr. was never a citizen of the United States of America.

Attorney Orly Taitz questioned private investigator Susan Daniels who testified as to her findings in the investigation of Barack Obama’s Social Security Number. Ms. Daniels stated that Obama’s SSN is fraudulent, having been issued to other people who had died prior to the issuance to Obama.

Taitz then called forensic document experts, Including Doug Vogt, to testify as to the authenticity of Obama’s birth certificate. Vogt went through various discrepancies in the lettering and spacing of the birth certificate issued by Obama and went into detail about how such a document could be altered using various software applications.

Taitz also called John Sampson, a retired INS inspector and expert on immigration document fraud. He testified that at the time the Connecticut social security number was allegedly issued Obama was living in Hawaii with his maternal grandparents. Sampson also testified that as an INS agent he would obtain original documents from the Social Security Agency, the State Department passport division and a birth certificate from the State of Hawaii.